


Collection

by CatherineEmbrace



Category: Assassin's Creed, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Fallout 3, Fallout 4, Saints Row, Transformers Prime
Genre: OC stories - Freeform, i'm really lazy sorry, unfinished work
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-23
Updated: 2017-01-28
Packaged: 2018-09-11 09:44:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 18,487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8974693
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CatherineEmbrace/pseuds/CatherineEmbrace
Summary: Just a bunch of my unfinished works that I had lying around in my computer, and will not be updated.





	1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Fallout   
Uluru, the capital of the Outback. The Australian Wasteland. Ever since the Great War between America, China and some of the other major super powers, the world had basically gone to shit. 

That wasn’t an exaggeration. Mutated animals and plants, hostile environments and not to mention the unbelievably high levels of radiation; it was a wonder that Australia was still inhabited. According to some of the old records, it had been a hostile place even before the war, and thanks to the radiation, had turned the already dangerous country into a nearly inhospitable place to live. Thanks to that, the people that lived in the country were tough and hardy, and were used to the horror of their Wasteland, which was usually called the Outback. 

Way back when, before the bombs fell, apparently most people had lived on the coast, in massive cities that had millions of people living in them. Then, once the bombs came, they obliterated these cities, forcing the surviving population to move inland, to avoid the lethal radiation. 

Well, that’s what West had heard. They usually taught that in the local school, but once West had been old enough, he had decided to train as a medic. He kinda missed the old stories. It had been nearly two hundred years since the bombs had fell, and his colony had been lucky enough to have most survivors from cities called Darwin and a town called Broome. They even had people from as far south as Perth, the capital city of the old, pre-war state known as West Australia. 

That was where West had gotten his name, actually. His ancestors were survivors from Perth, and he had been lucky enough to know his family history. Most people either didn’t care or didn’t worry about it, but West was fascinated by his history. That actually influenced his decision to become a medic or doctor; his great-great-great grandmother had been a paramedic from Perth, so he supposed he had received her love of medicine. 

 

Uluru was a massive city. Before the war, it had been a massive rock formation called a monolith, but once the threat of war became known, the government of the day had apparently hollowed out the massive rock in order to support the surviving population. Oh, there were other underground colonies, West knew, but they didn’t really contact them much. There was a colony out west, called Alice Springs or something, that they often traded with, but West had never been out that way. To be honest, he’d never left the monolithic city. 

Of course, he knew how to fight, how to survive. Every kid did. That was the first thing they taught you in school, asides from how to work, how to support the city. Everyone had to pull their weight. Slackers were not tolerated, but most people were pretty good. 

Even so, West wasn’t sure he even wanted to leave the city. It was, well, his home. And it wasn’t small, by any means. He wasn’t really sure how many people lived in the underground city, but West supposed it was close to a million people. The underground tunnels stretched for kilometres, and West lived, ironically, in the eastern part of the city, often called ‘the Eastern states,’ which had apparently been an old pre-war nickname for the states of New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and Tasmania. The Western part of the city was nicknamed ‘the West.’ In the centre of the city – which sat directly underneath the main part of Uluru – was their government, which usually controlled the laws and regulations of the city. West was glad they had them. From reports they got from traders and the caravans, law didn’t exist in other parts of the Outback.

 

“Hey, West!” A cheerful voice yelled out from the already loud and crowded hall. Known as the Markets, the sprawling, upbeat labyrinth of shops and food was probably West’s favourite place to eat. The red head was sitting in the food hall, which the Markets basically surrounded the rectangular eating area. Even though the whole hall was nearly a kilometre underground, you could swear you were close to the surface due to the high, industrial ceilings that gave the vague impression of sky. 

The entertainment was usually pretty good as well, with an old, rickety piano that was currently being played by an older man wearing an old, battered fedora. West could recognise the song; a faster rendition of an old pre-war song called Blue Moon. He grinned, bobbing his head along to the jaunty tune. His friend, Tex, slid into the chair next to him.

“Mate, didn’t you hear me call?” The dirty blond raised an eyebrow, causing a scar over his right eye to crease. West smiled and shrugged. 

“Sorry, I was enjoying the music. Pizza?” 

The younger man shook his head. “No, I’ve already eaten.” He leant in closer, causing West to lean in as well. “I need your help.”

West frowned, running a hand through his red hair. “What with?”

“Haven’t you heard? The caravans have stopped!”

“Uh, Broome, the caravans aren’t usually on time on a good day. Why? Was one late or something?”

The blond sighed in frustration. “No, I mean that all the caravans have stopped. I heard my dad talking about it in his office to one of the other MPs. They haven’t come for nearly a month. Dad thinks something’s happened.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes! Dad’s getting worried.”

West watched his agitated friend. He looked to be deep in thought, defiantly worried about the absent caravans. It was unusual, West had to say. 

Broome – otherwise known as Tex – was a prolific businessman in the Eastern sector of the city. He usually collaborated with other stall owners in order to help them run their stalls and shops. West usually called him Broome for the same reason he was called West – his ancestors were from Broome, a small town up north. He was often seen as quite a catch, being relatively successful despite his young age, and he was considered rather handsome as well, according to some of the other ladies in their sector. Broome’s father was also a member of their parliament, as he represented their sector. 

In the parliament, each sector of the city was represented by a member that vouched for them and brought issues to the public eye. It was a good, profitable job to have, despite the usual public scrutiny, which had apparently existed well before the Great War.


	2. fallout 3

I woke to banging and crashing, echoing throughout the vault. I jerked upwards, startled. There was lots of yelling and crashing, with… laser pistols being fired? I scrambled up from my bed just as Amanda – my best friend – burst in.

“Catherine! You’re dad’s gone!” My friend burst out. I looked at her in shock.

“But, the Vault’s sealed! There’s no way anyone can get in or out!” 

Amanda shook her head. “I know, but somehow he left the vault. You need to go, NOW.”

A whole lot of yelling echoed from the corridor, dangerously close to my room. Shit. Amanda’s eyes widened and she pushed a 10mm pistol into my hands. “It’s my father’s. You… might need it.”

I nodded. I still had no clue what the hell was going on.

 

A minute later I was out in the corridor. The security was busy dealing with… radroaches? Must’ve been an outbreak. We had them from time to time. Shrugging it off, I sprinted off down the corridor, heading in the direction of the entrance. Why… why had dad left? There must have been a reason. My dad was the sort of person to do that. But, why leave me?

I skidded around a corner to find Butch – the ultimate asshole – freaking out. 

“Catherine, you… you have to help me! My mother’s in there with the radroaches and I can’t help her!”

I gave him a sceptical look. “Why? You scared Butch?”

“Yes! I am! I admit that! But please, help my mother!”

Oh for goodness sake! Sighing, I quickly darted into the room next to us before hitting the button to open the opposing door. It slid open, revealing Butch’s mother on her bed, surrounded by about four radroches and multiple bottles of wine. Pulling out my 10mm pistol, I shot the radroaches dead. 

Holstering my weapon, I walked out.

“Your mother’s fine, Butch, don’t worry.”

He looked at me in absolute shock. “You saved her? After everything I’ve done to you? Oh my god, thank you so much! Here, take this! You’re a Tunnel Snake from now on!” He tugged off his jacket and pushed it into my arms before running to his mother. Okay then. 

I resumed my sprinting. I needed to get to the Overseer’s Office. Amanda had mentioned a secret tunnel that I could use to escape from the Vault. 

Darting down a flight of stairs, I found myself standing in front of something horrific. My father’s friend, Jonas, lay dead in a puddle of his own blood. Who… who had done this? 

Huh? 

An audio tape lay in his hand. I had a feeling that it was meant for me. Why? Jonas was probably the only person in the Vault my father trusted fully. Is my father had left me a message, Jonas would have had it. Clicking the tape into my Pip-boy, my father’s voice echoed out.

“Hold on Jonas, I need to record this first.  
I don’t really know how to tell you this. I hope you’ll understand, but I know you might be angry. I thought about it for a long time, but in the end I decided it was best for you not to know. So many things could have gone wrong, and there’s really no telling how the Overseer will react when he finds out. It’s best if he can blame everything on me. Obviously, you already know that I’m gone. It was something I needed to do. You’re an adult now. You’re ready to be on your own. Maybe some day things will change and we can see each other again. I can’t tell you why I left or where I’m going. I don’t want you to follow me. God knows life in the Vault isn’t perfect, but at least you’ll be safe. Just knowing that will be enough to keep me going.  
I don’t mean to rush you, Doc, but I’d feel better is we got this over with.  
Okay. Go ahead. Goodbye. I love you.”

Fucking hell. FUCKING HELL. 

WHAT THE HELL DAD?! 

I was so mad I punched a wall. The skin over my knuckles split but I didn’t care. Dad thought he could just get up and leave? Keeping me ‘safe’? I snarled at the wall before punching it again. 

One minute. One minute before I needed to leave. 

I took a deep breath in. And out. 

Heavy footsteps echoed from the doorway. Looks like my minute was up. A moment later, a guard barrelled through the door, pistol up. I ducked behind an upturned desk just as he fired off a shot. 

My day keeps getting better and better, doesn’t it?

A couple more rounds were fired off before I heard the sound of reloading. Jumping up from my cover, I fired off a shot which hit the man in between the eyes, killing him. I exhaled in relief, trying to ignore the fact that I had just killed a man. I ducked down next to him, taking his pistol. Stripping him quickly, I took his armour and anything of value. Ducking into a storage room I changed quickly. Maybe my armour would confuse the other guards. 

 

Luckily I made it to the Overseer’s Office without running into any other guards. Next to the door I found a couple of bobby pins which I used to pick the lock on the door. What? I read a lot of books!

Inside, the office was empty. Thank goodness. On the far side of the room was a computer terminal which I walked over to and booted up. It came up with a whole load of random words which I assumed were possible passwords. Hmm…

Yes! It took me a while but I managed to hack the computer. There were a whole load of files on it, but one stood out, labelled UNLOCK TUNNEL. I clicked on it and loud metallic screeching echoed throughout the room. I covered my ears and watched as a tunnel opened up from the desk in front of the terminal. When it was fully opened I entered.

 

The tunnel spat me out in a room with a massive metal door and a load of computers. Looking around, I saw a smaller computer near the door. Walking over, I saw a whole load of buttons and dials. Making a face, I pressed a larger, red button. With a metallic roar the massive drill started to move to open the door. While it was opening, someone started firing off shots behind me. I swore, ducking behind the computer. Tugging my pistol out, I turned and stood, firing off a couple shots. I hit one guy in the head, knocking him flat, while I hit the other guy in his gun shoulder, causing him to drop his weapon. A moment later I smashed a baton into the side of his head, knocking him onto the ground with a graceful ‘smack.’

I laughed humorously before taking any ammo they had. Making my way out the door, I turned, giving my home one last look. I had a feeling that I wouldn’t be seeing this place for a while. But anyway, there wasn’t anything left for me here. 

Okay. 

Walking to the end of the tunnel, I listened as the entrance closed behind me. Too late now. 

I opened the door into the Wasteland. 

 

I stepped into the harsh light. Squinting, I covered my eyes with the back of my hand as I waited for my eyes to adjust to the sun. When they did, I was floored. 

I. Was. Floored. 

Out from the small cave I was standing outside of stretched miles and miles of terrain. The sun was rising over the mountains, something… something I’d never seen before. It was incredible. 

I was distracted by a pinging sound on my Pip-boy. Glancing down I noticed a small blinking light on the screen of my Pip-boy. Hm? Touching the light a small map appeared on the screen. Peering at it, I noticed a small marker labelled ‘Megaton.’ Must be a town. It didn’t look to be that far away. 

Maybe… maybe dad went there? If it was this close, he might have passed through to stock up on supplies. Maybe I could catch him! If I started walking there now, I could maybe make it by midday. 

Right. Now that that was sorted, which way should I go?

Walking towards the small cliff I was standing on, I carefully climbed down. Jumping off, my boots hit the ground with a satisfying ‘thud.’ Keeping to the shade, I started to make my way around the rocks which surrounded the Vault. 

 

About an hour later I was crouching behind a large rock, trying not to be hit by the Raiders I had annoyingly stumbled across on my trek to Megaton. Oh my fucking god, did they ever stop?!

Woah! 

I threw myself backwards as a Raider sprinted around my cover with a pool cue and a knife. She swung wildly and just managed to slick my cheek open with her knife. I growled in annoyance and pain before putting a bullet through her skull. The body slumped to the ground as I fired on the two other Raiders, killing one in the process and blasting the other’s hand to pieces. He freaked out and started screaming before rushing me with a knife, in which I promptly shot his brains out. 

Were there any more Raiders? I glanced around. No, I didn’t think so. Thank goodness. I went and searched all of them, coming up with some good loot: a Chinese pistol, ammo for that pistol, a 10mm pistol, ammo for that, lots of armour from the bodies and bottle caps? Why…?

Regardless, I pocketed everything and put pretty much everything in my rucksack. Standing, I regained my bearings and continued on towards Megaton.

 

My timing couldn’t have been more perfect as I reached the town just before midday. Any longer and I would have started to dehydrate or get heatstroke. I had applied pressure to the cut under my eye but it was still bleeding pretty badly. I didn’t want to waste one of my precious stimpacks on something this minor. I only had ten and who knew when I’d need them?

Reaching the outside of the town, I slumped heavily to the ground, putting my head between my legs, resting. A strange bleating noise made me raise my head. A… two headed cow. What? I shook my head in disbelief. Somehow I knew that I hadn’t seen nearly the strangest thing in the Wasteland. 

Getting to my feet, I wandered over to the cow. 

“Hello there…” I mumbled, petting its head. It rumbled, moving closer to me. I laughed.

“She likes you.” A male voice made me raise my head. He was wearing armour with a large rifle slung over his back. He extended a hand with a cheery grin. “Crazy Wolfgang, at your service!”

I returned the shake with a laugh. “That’s a hell of a name!”

He shrugged. “The Wasteland’ll do that to ya. Now, what can I do for you?” 

I raised an eyebrow. “What do you offer?”

“Goods, repairs, the usual. Say…” He gave me the once over. “You don’t look like a Wastelander to me. Whatcha do, wander out from a Vault?” 

“Yeah, I did actually.” Sighing, I looked over in the directing I had come from before looking back at Wolfgang. “I got some things I want to sell. What do you buy?”  
Wolfgang grinned. “Now you’re talking! Let’s see what you’ve got! I’ll buy anything you have!”

 

Ten minutes later I walked towards the entrance of Megaton 179 caps richer than what I had been. When I had been selling some of the stuff I had picked up from the Raiders, I had quizzed Wolfgang on the coming and goings of the Capital Wasteland as it was called. 

Apparently bottle caps were the main currency and I purchased a small pouch to store mine in. Wolfgang had repaired my 10mm pistol for me, as well as the Chinese pistol I had picked up. He had said a gun was essential for surviving in the Wasteland, and my pistols were some of the weaker, cheaper ones you could get. 

He also mentioned that food and water was usually irradiated when you could find it, and recommended I carry Rad-away to stop radiation poisoning. When I left, he wished me good luck in my travels and hoped that we would meet again. I had wished him well also. 

Now it was time to find my father. 

 

I shouldered open the heavy metal door as the robot at the entrance ushered me in. Stepping in, I stared in wonder at the mishmash tangle of wires and buildings, all build up the sides of what appeared to be a crater. Oh, yep, I could see the bomb in the very centre of the town. Well, that was worrying. Was it active?!

“Hello! Nice to meet you, and welcome to my town. I’m the mayor, Lucas Simms.” A voice caught my attention and I looked down at the dark skinned man. I smiled and held out my hand. 

“You can call me…” I paused, trailing off. Could I really call myself Catherine? That name belonged to a different place, Vault 101. I thought for a moment. “Sorry, you can call me the Lone Wanderer.” 

Yes, that sounded fitting. It wasn’t as strange as Crazy Wolfgang’s, that’s for sure. Lucas nodded. 

“A pleasure to meet you, Wanderer. I have a feeling that I’m going to like you. Just don’t make trouble for my people and you’ll be fine. We clear?” 

I nodded. “Sure. Wasn’t planning on doing anything, anyway.”

The man grinned. “I’m glad we understand each other. Now that that’s out the way, is there anything I can help you with?”

“I’m looking for my father. He’s tall and middle aged.”

Lucas shook his head. “I’m sorry. I’ve got enough going on in town that I don’t keep tabs on every visitor who passes through here.” He paused for a moment, thinking. “But I’m sure if you ask around town, someone else might have seen or spoken to him.”

I nodded. “Thank you Lucas.”

“See you a-“

Loud gunshots broke him off. I looked towards the noises. They were coming from outside, to the north. “What the hell was that?!” I cried, startled. Lucas frowned. 

“I don’t know. Wanderer, try not to be stupid. I know it’s tempting to be a hero, but for your life?” He sighed. “It’s your decision. Stay safe.”

More gunshots echoed out. I growled. Guess I was going to be an idiot then. Sprinting for the door, I left the city. Running as fast as I could, I sprinted around the outskirts of the city. I heard a roar and shouting, with more gunshots being fired off. Coming around the corner- 

WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?! 

A massive, 7-foot high creature with massive claws and massive muscles. It looked terrifying. 

I snapped out of my trance as I heard someone yell in pain. Skirting around the rocks, I noticed a girl laying in a crevice, her leg twisted at an odd angle. Her gun was laying just out of reach and the creature was advancing swiftly on the injured person. 

I raised my pistol, having a feeling that it wouldn’t do much other than act as a distraction. Firing off a shot, I hit the creature just below the large horns on its head. It paused before turning to fix me with a burning gaze. Shit. Shit, shit, shit! 

Jumping backward, (not the best thing to do as I couldn’t see where I was going), I fired in the hope of hitting something vital. The creature was already bleeding, my guess from the girl with the broken leg. I saw, just behind the creature, the girl lunge for her weapon. She raised it at the monster.

“DUCK!” 

She yelled, pulling the trigger. I stumbled on the rocks, slipping down into a crevice as she fired at the creature. I heard a massive ‘thud’ after which everything went silent. Then a groan of pain. 

Climbing out of my hiding place, I jumped down to the ground below. The creature lay dead on the ground. Thank goodness. 

“Are you alright?” I asked cautiously. The girl snarled in pain, baring her sharper-than-normal canines. 

“Do I look like I’m fucking alright?! The Deathclaw snapped my fucking leg!” The girl hissed. Somehow, I just chuckled, walking over and crouching down. “What the fucking hell is so funny?!”

I laughed. “I’ve never heard someone swear so much!”

She gave me a look. “Fucking ha ha. Hilarious. Now, can you help me?” 

I grinned. “Give me a sec.”

Her leg was not a pretty sight. Bits of bone were poking out of her skin just above her ankle, and her foot was on an odd angle. Lovely. Pulling my pool cue from my back, (don’t ask me why I kept it, I just did), I carefully splinted the girl’s leg with bits of cloth. I injected her with a stimpack to stop any further injury before helping her up. She leant heavily on me, snarling and swearing in anger. (She also got me to cut the Deathclaw’s hands off. I tied one to my pack with some rope and the other to her pack. Why? I don’t know.)

Somehow we made it to the entrance of the gate. Crazy Wolfgang opened it for me, mumbling about how ‘I was bloody crazy.’ I just laughed and the girl swore in pain. When we got inside, Lucas raised an eyebrow before running to help me. We manoeuvred down the stairs and to the Doctor’s Surgery. We dumped the pissed girl on the bed. The Doc got to work right away. 

 

10 minutes later, the door opened. I was sitting outside, waiting to see if the girl was alright. 

“I set her leg, but I had to sedate her in the process.” He grunted, wiping his hands on his pants. “Waste of meds if you ask me…” He grumbled to himself before pausing. “You splinted her leg?”

“Hm? Oh, yeah, yeah I did.” I looked at the stern man. He had kicked me out so that he ‘wasn’t distracted by me being there’ or something of the sort. He nodded.

“It was done better than some of the jobs I’ve seen. Not bad for someone who’s never been on the Wasteland before.” Doc Church grumbled. I grinned before standing. “Don’t be getting a big head over it though.”

I laughed. “Don’t worry, I won’t. My dad was a physician. I picked up on a few things.” I paused. “Have you seen him? Middle aged-man and tall.”

The Doc coughed, shaking his head. “No, I haven’t. You’ll have to ask someone else. Now, come back later. There’s nothing for you here now.”

“Thanks Doc. I’ll look around.”

 

A couple minutes later, I found myself sitting at the restaurant, The Brass Lantern or something. I was asking around if anyone had seen my father when my stomach had growled – rather loudly, I might add- when a lady laughed and invited me down for some food. 

“You’re new around town, aren’t you dear?” She questioned me. I nodded.

“Yeah. I’m looking for my father. Have you seen him?”

The lady – Jenny Stahl as she had introduced herself – shook her head. “I’m afraid not. I would’ve remembered if anyone like that had eaten here.”

I sighed, running my hand through my hair. “Who should I ask?”

Jenny thought for a moment. “Maybe try Mister Cromwell down there. He might remember if your father passed through here.” She gave me a kind smile. I smiled, shouldering my pack and my newly bought supplies. The Deathclaw hand swung lazily. 

“I’ll do that. Thanks, and thanks for the food!” I waved, heading off towards the massive bomb in the centre of town. I was still a little edgy about getting near it, but I needed to find my father. Huh. It looked like people were… praying? In the water?

“Mister Cromwell?” I asked hesitantly. The man in the water looked up, smiling at me. 

“Welcome child! What have you come here for? To bask in the Glow?” 

I gave him a sceptical look. Did he have a few bolts loose? “I was told you might have seen my father pass through here.” I gave a quick description. 

“Ah! Yes! I remember him! If I recall, he was going to talk to… Colin Moriary.”

I broke into a grin. “Thank you!”

“His Saloon is on the top of the hill.”

I thanked him before continuing on my way. 

“May you walk in the Glow, my child.”

 

After walking around for a while, lost, a settler directed me to the Saloon. I opened the door and walked in. When I was inside, I looked around at the place. It was… interesting. A bar?

I walked over to the bar when a lady looked me up and down.

“Hey baby. You new?” She asked with a purr. I raised my eyebrow. 

“I’m looking for my father. He’s tall, middle aged.”

A sly smile tugged on the corner of her lips. “Yeah, I’ve seen him. Hard to forget a handsome face like that.”

“You’ve seen him?” I asked excitedly. 

“What’s it to you?” 

I scowled. “Cut the crap. Tell me what you saw.”

“Ooh, so you like it rough?” She smirked. I rolled my eyes and walked off.

I went and sat down at one of the stools with a sigh. A man with a deformed face looked at me. “Don’t mind Nova. She’s always like that.”

I sighed. “Thanks.” He looked at me with surprise. “Hey, what’s that look for?”

The man blinked. “Sorry… it’s just; I’m not used to Wastelanders talking to me as if I was an actual person.”

“Really? Why?” He gave me a look of absolute shock. “No, seriously. Why?”

“Because I look like this? Because I’m a ghoul?” 

I shrugged. “I don’t see how the appearance of a person changes who they are.” I smiled at him, holding out my hand. “I’m the Lone Wanderer.”

He was still staring at me in shock before hesitantly reaching out to shake my hand in return. “I’m… I’m Gob. It’s nice to meet you,” He paused for a second, “Hey, tell you what, I’ll give you a discount on any drink you want. Our secret.”

“I don’t actually drink, but thanks,” I smiled before sighing, pinching the bridge of my nose, “You don’t mind telling me where I could find Moiarty? I’ve gotta speak to him. He might have seen my father pass through here.”

Gob motioned to a door behind the bar. “In there.”

“Thanks Gob.”

“Hey, if you ever pass by the Underworld, tell Carol I said hi.”

I nodded, standing from my seat. Making my way around the bar, I knocked on the door before pushing it open. Inside, a man was sorting different bottles.  
“I swear to god, Gob, if you’re here to-“ He looked up, closing his mouth in surprise. “Who the hell are you, might I ask?”

“I was told that you may have spoken to my father.”

He peered at me before stepping back in shock. “My god! Little Catherine! You were only a baby when you and your father came through here! Look at you now, all grown up!”

I winced at the name. “Call me the Lone Wanderer please,” I paused, digesting what he just said. “But I thought I was bought in Vault 101?”

Moiraity laughed. “I bet you he told you that! No, you weren’t. You were born someplace else. You and your father came by here. He said he was going to Vault 101 for safety. I wasn’t sure if you had made it or not! But here you are!”

I sighed. This man annoyed me. “Moirairty, did my father come through here?”

“Aye, he did. He only stayed for a little bit, before leaving.”

“Do you know where he’s going?!”

“Aye, I do. But… well, information isn’t free nowadays. Let’s say… 100 caps?”

It took all my self-control not to punch the smug bastard. 100 caps?! Scowling, I pulled out my little bag and counted 100 caps before slamming them into Moiraity’s hands. He gave me a satisfied smile. 

“Well, there’s no limit for the love of a parent.”

“Cut the crap, asshole.”

“Impatient are we? He’s gone to the Galaxy News Radio building in the D.C area.” He pointed to the spot on my map and I marked it with a marker. It’d take me a day or two to walk there by foot. I could stay here tonight and set out early next morning. Alright. 

Reluctantly, I paid for a room with my remaining caps. When I got to my room, I flopped down on the bed, not before locking the door and placing my rucksack up against it. 

I slept restlessly, but I woke just as the sun was rising. Gathering my things, I left the key on the bar counter, leaving the building silently. 

I was walking towards the exit when I heard annoyed yelling. Huh?

“YOU CAN’T MAKE ME STAY HERE DOC!” The girl I had met yesterday was yelling really loudly. Doc Church was trying to calm her down, but she was limping strongly towards the entrance of Megaton will all her armour and weapons. I sighed and ran over.

“Hey! You know that you’re waking everyone in town, don’t you?” I hissed at the enraged girl. She looked at me with fury, forked tongue flicking in and out. She narrowed her eyes. 

“Do I look like I care? Doc here won’t let me fucking leave!” She growled, hobbling up the hill. 

“You’ll kill yourself, you idiot!” Oh my god!

The Doc was pacing with a thunderous look on his face. “That idiot’ll get herself killed! She’s in no condition to be walking!”

I ran my fingers through my hair. “I’ll make sure she doesn’t kill herself.”

 

For someone with a broken leg, she was doing pretty well. She had already made it outside and was limping around the outside of the town. I facepalmed and ran up to her.

“You know you’ll get yourself killed.”

“I won’t.” She glared straight ahead, still walking. I sighed. 

“Where are you going, anyway?”

“The GNR studio. I have a friend in the Brotherhood of Steel who was posted there and I need to find her.” She paused, only for a moment. “I promised her parents I’d protect her.”

This was too good to be true! She was also going to the GNR building? “I’m going there too! Let me come with you!”

“No. You’ll just get in the way. You’ll never survive on the Wasteland.”

“Says a person who’s got a broken leg. I may be new to the Wasteland, but I know that if something attacks us, you won’t be able to run from it. Two guns are better than one.” I stepped in front of her and crossed my arms. The girl gave me a scowl. 

“…fine. But you need a better weapon.” She started to hobble off on one direction. “Follow me.”

I beamed and started to follow her. “My name’s the Lone Wanderer, by the way.” 

She snorted. “Ryu.”

 

A few minutes later, Ryu had her arm in a rock and was feeling around for something inside. She gave a grunt as she successfully pulled something out. “Aha! Here we go!”

Grinning, she tossed something to me. I caught it on an odd angle. Oh hell yeah! A sniper rifle! I looked at my companion in shock. “I can have this?”

“Yeah. Take this as well.” She tossed me some ammo as well. Hmm… only ten rounds. I’d have to be careful. And it looked like my gun wasn’t in the best condition either. Oh well. Still more powerful than my 10mm though. 

“Come on. We need to get moving. We need to find a safe place to rest before the sun sets.”

I nodded. “Tell me when your leg starts to get worse.”

Ryu snorted. “What are you, a Doctor?” I laughed.

“My dad was a physician. I’m looking for him.” I checked my Pip-boy. South-east. Good. Ryu looked at me with a raised eyebrow. 

“Why? What’d he do, abandon ya?”

I scratched the back of my head sheepishly. “Yeah, actually.”

 

By the time night fell, Ryu and I had been attacked by a Yao Guai, a band of 4 raiders and two mole rats. I was also now carrying a hunting rifle. Which was now my main gun. Ryu had cut some slices of meat from the Yao Guai and the mole rats, which both she and I were carrying in our packs, wrapped in old cloth from Ryu’s bag. 

Now, both of us were sitting around a campfire cooking the meat we got today. We were sitting in a rock formation with an old campfire. I’d already scouted around and killed anything bigger than a bloatfly. Ryu had started up a fire, and apparently you could cook pretty much anything in the Wastelands, from people to Giant Ants. 

“Here.” Ryu tossed a chunk of cooked Yao Guai meat towards me. “We’ll cook the rest of the meat now, and can eat the mole rat meat tomorrow. We can hunt for some more then as well.”

“You mean I’ll hunt for the meat.”

My companion laughed. “Think of it as practice. You need to learn how to live in the Capitol Wasteland.”

I snorted before biting into my dinner. “Oh gross! This tastes awful!”

Ryu burst out laughing. “Deal with it, novice.” 

I shook my head and laughed along.

 

I sighed, leaning my head back against the rock behind me. My Pip-boy said it was about midnight, and I was supposed to wake Ryu in about an hour. 

At least our campsite was easy to protect, being a medium-sized hollow in the rock with only one entrance. The campfire had been put out a couple hours ago to not draw any unwanted attention. I yawned, widely. 

Randomly, I decided to fiddle with my Pip-boy, and my father’s voice started playing again. I sighed… Why did my father have to leave the Vault? I could feel a tear run down the bridge of my nose, which I wiped away hurriedly. I resumed my vigil. 

 

When I woke up that morning, Ryu had already started to get her things together.

“Sleep well, novice?” She asked me with a smirk. I snorted, sitting up. It had been really uncomfortable, sleeping on hard rock. 

“Why the hell do you keep calling me that?” I mumbled, rubbing me eyes tiredly.

“’Cause you’re a novice. A greenhorn. A newbie. A pad-“

“I GET IT.” I turned to glare at her. She flashed me a grin. “What time is it, anyway?”

Ryu shrugged. “About 4. The sun still needs to rise, but it’s getting there. See?” She pointed to the mountains on the horizon. The sky was gradually getting lighter. “Come on. We better go. Oh yeah, here’s breakfast.” She tossed me some Mole Rat meat. I screwed up my nose at the food.

“Ugh, right. Come on then, let’s keep going.”

 

By midday, we were in the ruins of some sort of city. Ryu was hobbling alone, while I had my hunting rifle out. I didn’t trust the look of this place. Gunshots echoed out from up ahead. Both Ryu and I ducked into cover. Knew it! I took a breath.

“Stay here.” I got ready to duck out when Ryu grabbed my arm. 

“Are you an idiot?! You’ll get yourself killed! You don’t know how many there are!”

I shrugged. “We’ll need to fight them at some point, and your leg is playing up.” I huffed. “I’ll be back.” In which I darted out from our cover. Running quietly along the remainder of a street, I saw a lone Raider firing on a group of Wastelanders, two of the three already lying on the ground, dead. Pulling out my hunting rifle, I aimed… yes! Got him! 

I lowered my gun as the headless body of the Raider slumped to the ground. Slinging it over my shoulder, I went over to talk to the Ghoul.

“Hey, are you alright?”

He snorted. “Do I look alright? Two of my friends were just killed. But hey, thanks for saving me. Too bad you didn’t come earlier.” He turned away from me, a scowl on his face. I shrugged.

“I was just trying to help. Good luck then.” I turned and waved before heading back towards where Ryu was hiding, not before picking up the Raider’s hunting rifle and caps. 

“I’m back.”

Ryu turned to me and scowled. “You could’ve gotten yourself killed, you idiot!”

I shrugged. “But I didn’t.” I flashed her a grin, “So let’s keep going, okay?”

“Ugh, fine. Don’t blame me if you get shot.”

 

Across the river, I blew a Raider’s head off with my sniper rifle. Ryu laughed next to me. “Good shot!”

I smiled, lowering my weapon. “Thanks. Come on, let’s keep going.”

Ryu grunted in pain as we resumed our walking. “I think we’ll need to swim across. I can’t see a bridge.”

I scowled. That wouldn’t be good for her leg. “Do you think you can make it?”

The girl laughed. “Not the worst I’ve done. Give me some Med-X and a Stimpack and I’ll be fine.”

I shook my head. “You’re crazy. I’ll swim across first to clear the way.”

Ryu snorted as we made our way down to the water’s edge. “I’m not a baby, you know. I’m not made of glass.”

“I know you know how to survive, but if your leg gets infected, it won’t be good.” I stepped into the water, making sure to keep my guns above the water. The Geiger meter in my Pip-boy started to tick constantly, indicating the current level of radiation I was absorbing into my body. Ugh… gross… it was all sludgy and brow at the bottom, and the water was slightly tinged green. I made it to the other side quickly before climbing up on the opposite bank. Were there any enemies? No.

I waved to Ryu, who started wading slowly through the river. I shook all the mud and gunk off of my shoes before surveying the area with my rifle. She waded through the river at a painfully slow pace when a bullet hit my left shoulder, cutting through the skin and some of my muscle underneath. I cried out in pain, although not before I sprinted to hide behind an upturned car. 

Clutching my shoulder, I bit down on my tongue, trying to stop myself from crying out in pain. Deep breath, Catherine… that made me laugh. I was the Lone Wanderer, not Catherine. 

Bullets continued to hit my shelter. They stopped for a moment, waiting. Taking my chance, I ducked out, shooting one between the eyes and blowing his head off, before ducking back down. Only then, I became aware of the car starting to smoke and heat up. Shit! 

Throwing myself back, the car I had been hiding behind exploded with a mini mushroom cloud of radiation. The Geiger meter started to tick again, and I moved out of the range of the radiation. I looked up to find that the three men that had been shooting at me, dead. The explosion must’ve killed them. Inspecting their bodies, I found a kill contract for the ‘Lone Wanderer.’ Well, somehow in the two days I’d been out of the Vault, someone had hired people to kill me. Well, the Wasteland was a strange place. I’d just roll with it. And besides! I got new armour! 

“Hey! What gives?!” Ryu yelled at me, hobbling up the hill, covered in muck. I had just finished dressing myself in an old building.

“People were hired to kill me.” 

Ryu whistled. “Must’ve pissed someone off. These are Talon Mercs. Pretty big guns. How’d you kill them?” She raised an eyebrow at the dead corpses. “Wait, never mind.”

I chuckled. “Are we… huh?” I trailed off as something caught my attention. There was a railway map. I walked over to it. “Do any of these sound familiar to you?”

Ryu peered over my shoulder. “Hmm… well… oh!” She gave a cry of excitement. 

I looked at her. “What?”

She was grinning excitedly. “If we go through here, we can avoid all the Super Mutant territory! Yes! Good find, Wanderer!”

“Super Mutants…?” I gave her a blank look. She ushered me inside the Metro.

“Yeah. Big, strong guys. Pretty stupid, although some are smart though. That’s pretty rare.” She frowned. “They like to take people to turn them into more Super Mutants. They’re pretty bad to run into.”

I looked ahead, huffing. “Ugh, great. Let’s keep going then.”

 

Inside, it was dark and dingy. Also, something felt off, dangerous. I had a feeling that I really didn’t want to know what was down here. Ryu seemed not to notice or care, strolling in without a second thought, (well, hobbling). I huffed in annoyance and followed her deeper into the gloom. 

Within a few minutes, we were in a room off to the side. There was a robot in a container thingy, with a terminal next to it. Out of interest, I went up to the terminal, booting it up. The moment it started up, a mass of codes, words and numbers appeared on the screen. Ugh. It was locked. 

Ryu wandered over idly, looking at me with interest. “Whatcha doing?”

I grunted in annoyance at the computer. It was being difficult. “I’m trying to hack this thing.”

“You can actually hack those? It’s all a mass of words and numbers.”

I laughed. “It’s easy to get the hang of, if you practise.” I pressed a key, grinning in triumph when the terminal made a noise, letting me in. “Yes! Got it!”

Scrolling through the options, I selected the START SECURITY PROTECTRON. The cabinet thing started to whir and I stepped back from the terminal. “Maybe this can clear some of the smaller enemies away for us.” The shield protecting the robot slid down. “Oh! Take one of these!”

Hurriedly, I handed Ryu a metro ticket. Just in time, too, as the protectron scanned both of us, emitting in a gravely, robotic voice, “TICKETS FOUND.” The robot paused for a moment, before turning to the door on the opposite side of the room. “ENEMIES DETECTED. OMEGA-LEVEL THREAT. INITITATING CONTROL PROTECALL.” In which it lumbered off before starting to fire its laser weapons. At what, I had no clue. Glancing at each other, both Ryu and I followed the robot. It didn’t take long to find what it had been shooting at, with dead mole-rats lying in the middle of the passage. Ryu bent down to get what I was assuming was ‘dinner’. 

A metallic screech echoed from up the hall, drawing both of our attentions. I was about to head towards the noise – assuming the robot met its demise – when Ryu caught my shoulder. She shook her head, putting her finger to her lips. Quietly, we moved into a small room, blocked off by rubble and hidden by darkness. It wasn’t a moment too soon as the inhabitants of the Metro station came to investigate the source of the disturbance. 

Ghouls made their way out of the dark, growling and looking around wildly. I had my eyes open with shock. These ghouls were nothing like Gob and the Wastelanders we had met on the way here! They were just… feral. Yes, that’s what I’d call them. Feral ghouls. They were dressed in rags, and seemed to be no more than wild animals. I glanced at Ryu, who was sitting with an angry expression on her face. 

The ghouls didn’t stay long, finding nothing. When they left, Ryu and I continued on our way. We found the deactivated protectron, lying amongst dead mole-rat corpses. I scavenged the robot for energy cells and scrap metal. I could always sell it if I needed to. 

Further down the tunnels, the narrow-ish passageways opened up into a much larger room. We could both hear explosions when we were much further down the halls, and so had approached here with caution. I could hear the wild shrieking of feral ghouls, and the yelling of something else. Telling Ryu to wait where she was – something she didn’t take kindly to- I crept forwards to scope the place out. Sitting in the shadows, I watched a battle unfold between about 3 feral ghouls and something big, yellow and monstrous. I think it was a super mutant, based on what Ryu had told me. Suddenly, there was a massive explosion, and bits of ghoul went flying. Two more explosions later and the super mutant was walking out of the shadows, grunting and wiping blood off of himself. He stepped a little way further into the light, unaware of me lining his head up with my scope. I took a breath to steady myself before firing a shot off into his head. Surprisingly, he didn’t go down, but he did sway a lot, glancing around wildly. Another two shots and he was lying on the ground, dead. 

“You can’t order me around, you know. I’m not a child, and I’ve been on the Wastes much longer than you ever have.” Ryu’s sullen voice floated out from the dark, followed by the loud clunking of her metal cast. I grunted, still looking around with my hunting rifle.

“I know, but you’re injured. Besides, I can hide and run much better than you at the moment.” I slung my hunting rifle over my shoulder before crossing my arms over my chest, giving her a stern look. She scowled at me before pushing past roughly. She looked around briefly – searching the bodies of the dead ghouls and super mutant – before hobbling up a set of stairs. Not a moment later, gunshots went off, sounding really, really loud in the enclosed room. I winced. 

I was at the top of the elevator in a moment to find Ryu standing over the dead bodies of three ghouls. She shot me a glare before continuing. I felt a twinge of annoyance. I was trying to help her, and she acting like this! Ugh, great. Narrowing my eyes, I followed after her, my rifle at the ready.

 

At the end of the hallway, a large sigh - with the words ‘Canterbury Commons’ scrawled upon it – was hanging crookedly over a large set of double-doors. By the harsh sunlight which was pouring through, I’d assume that it was the way out. I let out a silent sigh of relief. I’d had enough of tunnels for a life time. My shoulder still hurt like holy hell, even though I had injected myself with a precious stimpack. I guess it was healing. At least I could still fire straight. 

Ryu was still pissed at me, judging by her stiff demeanour and the fact she wasn’t saying anything. Rolling my eyes, I busied myself with searching the surrounding area. We were in some sort of old ruins, and when I checked my map, we were nearly on top of the marker I had set back in Megaton. 

Suddenly, I heard voices up ahead. Suddenly alert, I held my gun in front of me, listening to what the voices sounded like. It sounded like they were talking about… battle plans? 

Glancing at my companion, she straightened up before giving a full-blown grin, hobbling around the corner. I grumbled curses, but followed my companion. If she trusted the voices, they were possible allies. If she got in trouble, I’d need to back her up. So I sighed, and walked around the corner. 

What I saw surprised me. Ryu was laughing with happiness, hugging a woman who looked to be a few years younger than her, but was still just as weather-worn. The lady she was hugging was laughing too, and was dressed in some sort of heavy armour, with a sniper rifle slung over her back. Everyone in the small space looked surprised that we had just appeared from the Wasteland. Well, apart from one lady, who I’d assume to be the leader.

“This is no place for civilians! What the hell are you doing here?! This place is waist deep in super mutants who would rip your head off without a second glance.” She fixed me with a stern glare, full of authority. I raised an eyebrow. “Mind telling me who the hell you are?”

I gave a half laugh. “The Lone Wanderer.” I held out my hand. “Nice to meet you. I’m assuming that you’re the leader here?”

The lady gave a snort. “Colonel Lyons, of the Lyon’s Pride. Yes, yes I am the leader here. Now mind telling me why you’re here?”

Flicking my thumb at Ryu and the other lady, I pointed to the reunion. “My companion over there had a broken leg. I was tagging along to make sure that she didn’t get herself killed.” I drew a breath. “That, and I have to go to the Galaxy News Radio and meet with… Three Dog.” Somehow, I had a feeling that I was going to be exploited again when I said Three Dog’s name. Hrumph. Never mind.

Lyon blinked, but quickly regained her composure. “The GNR building is currently under attack by super mutants. We’re being sent there as back-up.”

I looked at her. “Can I come?”

“You can tag along, but don’t get in our way. You’ll only slow us down.”

Nodding, I started to question Lyon on who they were – The Brotherhood of Steel. People who collected dangerous tech to prevent it from getting into the hands of people who’d want to use it to harm the Wasteland. Or something like that. 

A few minutes later, Ryu came hobbling over, her face lit up, and a glowing light behind her eyes. It almost didn’t seem like the same person I had travelled with for two days to get here. She grinned, tugging on the arm of the lady she had been hugging before. 

“Lucy, let me introduce you to my friend. This is the Lone Wanderer. Wanderer, this is my cousin, Lucy.” Ryu smiled as she introduced the two of us to one another. I held out a hand.

“Nice to meet you. Like she said, I’m the Lone Wanderer.” I was trying to be pleasant, but something about the lady just ticked me off. And that was no surprise when she opened her mouth.

“How’d you get that name, freak?” She frowned, looking me up and down. “I don’t like you. You look shifty to me. Like you’ll stab someone in the back just to get their caps and chems.”

I narrowed my eyes. “If I’d wanted to stab someone the back, you’d know. You shouldn’t judge someone solely on how they look. It’s not right.”

She laughed a horrible, high sound. “What are you, a ghoul lover? Those assholes all deserve to die in a place like The Pitt. If I could I’d-“

“That’s enough, Luce. I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t insult the Wanderer; she’s saved our hides quite a few times now on the way here. And she’s one of the best shots with a sniper I’ve ever seen. She blew up a Raider’s head at 600 metres.” Ryu broke into Lucy’s rant with a flat tone. Did this happen often with them?

Luce glared at me. “No one on the Capital Wasteland is a better shot with a sniper than me. I’m not called Silver Hawk-eye for nothing.”

“I know Luce, but the Wanderer’s never picked up anything more powerful than a 10mm up until a couple of days ago. She’s a damn good shot for those circumstances.” 

Luce snorted, “Braminshit.” 

I rolled my eyes. “Well, as entertaining as this is, I think the super mutants have started to pick up on this location, if you wanted to know.” All eyes were suddenly on me.

“How can you tell? Our guards haven’t warned us yet.” Lyon spoke with a creased brow. I tilted my head, listening. If I focused, I could pick up on the locations of creatures/people within a certain radius. I didn’t do it very often as it required a decent amount of concentration. How? No bloody clue. Maybe I got exposed to radiation as a baby, I didn’t know. I didn’t really care. It hadn’t been much use in a Vault.

“Ma’am! Muties are closing in on us from the north and east! They’re trying to trap us in the rubble!” A random scout dashed past, yelling out what he had seen. Everyone looked at me in shock. I shrugged and grinned. 

“What? I’ve got a gift for this.”


	3. elderscrolls oblivion

I swore as I ducked down behind a broken pillar. Around me, members of the Blades fought, trying to protect the Emperor. Assassins had attacked the Imperial City, and my cell had been the one with the hidden passageway. The Emperor had apparently seen my face in his dreams, and had let me tag along, thankfully. I had been caught in Blackmarsh, trying to steal bread for my siblings. My brother had run in with a bad crowd who had decimated my home, killed my brother and left my family living in poverty. So I had taken to thieving to survive. 

I was actually quite good, but a guard had spotted me and I had been arrested. Due to the harsh laws they imposed on the Argonian population, I had been shipped to the Imperial City and had been left to rot in this dingy cell. 

But now, I was free, (kind of.)

The Emperor ducked down behind a pillar, unaware that an Assassin was about to attack him. By the Nine, did this man know anything about fighting? 

A moment later, the Assassin was dead, lying in a pool of his own blood. I wiped my claws clean on my tattered rags, before bending down to check the body of the Assassin over. There wasn’t much, just a small dagger, his clothes and a potion of healing. I took the dagger and the potion. 

When I stood up, I realized that I was alone. They had left me? Really? Like, I guess that I was a prisoner and all, and not worth their time, but seriously? I sighed.   
Okay. The door was locked. What other passages could I take?

Looking around, I noticed a massive hole in the wall. Perfect!

Before I left, I looked around the room, looting any bodies I could. One of the Blade commanders had fallen, so I took his katana. It was long, but not long enough that I couldn’t wield it in just one hand. I also took the commander’s armour. Anything was better than the rags I was wearing now. 

Okay. I was ready to go. 

Entering the hole, I kept my body close to the ground, making sure to keep my footsteps quiet. My katana was sheathed, and I made sure to keep looking around and listening for any indication that I wasn’t alone in here. 

My precaution paid off when I saw a flickering light just ahead of me. A moment later, a goblin came lumbering around the corner, a battle axe in one hand, although it looked rather worn down. I pressed myself into the rock wall I was leaning against, melting even further into the shadows. 

Please, please, don’t notice me!

The Nine must have been smiling down on me, because the goblin walked past, seemingly oblivious to my presence. I let out a silent breath as I snuck past. 

Too bad he wasn’t alone. 

A goblin sorcerer was surveying the area, and so noticed me rather quickly. It reacted quickly, firing off a bolt of electricity at me from the staff it was holding. I threw myself to the side, landing lightly on my feet, just missing the attack. In one movement, I pulled my katana from its sheathe, backing into the shadows of the cave behind me. The goblin, being the idiot it was, barged straight in, swinging its staff around wildly. I came up behind it, silently, before I plunged the sword into its body, killing it. The other goblin sprinted in, swinging its battle axe around, although it looked rather confused as it saw nothing but darkness. I threw my dagger, impaling it in the eye. That sent the goblin rather crazy, with it swinging its battle axe around wildly. I stayed in the shadows as I waited for it to die, in which it did a moment later.   
I exhaled, relief flooding my system. That was close. Going over to the goblin, I looked through his possession, which didn’t account for much. He did have a lockpick though, which I took and stored in my rucksack which I had picked up a little while ago. The sorcerer did have a little bit more, but not by much. I took its staff and any gold.

Over by the fire, I found a rusty iron bow, with a quiver of iron arrows. Score! I wasn’t the best archer, but it was better than nothing. Slinging it over my shoulder, I crept further into the cavern.

A little while later, I could hear voices up ahead. I pulled my bow out, notching an arrow onto the string. Creeping forwards, I made sure to stick to the dark. 

Bloody hell! 

Below me, the Emperor and his Blades were talking as someone was trying to open a gate. I was about to drop to the ground when I saw movement in the shadows. 

Shit! 

Standing up, I fired off an arrow. My hunch was right as an Assassin fell forwards, dead. The Blades sprang into action as another wave of Assassins sprang from the darkness. Jumping down from the ledge I was on, I shot out the throat of an Assassin out as he ran towards the Emperor, a dagger raised. I wry smile crept up onto my face as I killed another Assassin. 

“Come on! The door’s open!” A Blade yelled, motioning towards the door. I started to back towards the door, having swapped my bow for my katana. The Assassins kept approaching, but we all made it inside before a Blade slammed the door shut. Yes! We made it! 

Hey, where was the Emperor?

Scanning the room, I felt a massive wave of dread overcome me. I quickly noticed another room, partially obscured by shadows. Running into it, I was faced with a horrific site. 

A massive Daedra had impaled the Emperor with a sword.

A Conjurer stood behind him, red light emanating from his body. A moment later, he had been impaled on my sword, and he fell dead on the ground. The enchantment broken, the Daedra disappeared, disintegrating into red ash. I caught the Emperor as he fell. His breath was faint, and his heartbeat was fading. I held my hand over his horrific wound, a blue light emanating from my palm.

He caught my hand, shaking his head. 

“It is already my time. I saw this coming in my dreams.” The old man sighed, closing his eyes. He took something from his neck, pressing it into my hand. “Please, take this to Jeffre at Weynon Priory. He can tell you what to do. Please… do this for the Empire…”

His breath faded and his hand fell from mine. I sighed, my eyes feeling misty. Even though I hadn’t cared for the Empire, no person deserved to die like this. I opened my palm to look at what he had given me. The Amulet of Kings? Why had the Emperor had given me something as precious as this…?

“The Emperor!” A Blade commander stood in the doorway, eyes wide. “The Blades failed…?”

I exhaled, wiping my eyes. “No, I don’t think you have. I think the Emperor had another heir that wasn’t killed.”

The man looked at me with wide eyes. “How can you be so certain?”

I held up the Amulet of Kings. The man looked at me in shock. 

“He would trust you rather than any of the Blades?”

I shrugged. “I’m as clueless as you. But he gave me this task, so I might as well do it.”

The man sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “If the Emperor trusted you, that’s good enough for me. I’ll help you the best I can, but I can only really open the door to the sewers. You’ll have to make the rest of the way on your own.”

I nodded. “That’s fine. I’m a thief. I know the darkness like the back of my hand.” I smiled at him wryly. “Don’t worry, I’ll deliver this. We do have a code of honour.”

He shook his head. Disbelief? “You should also take this.” He held out something dangling from a cord. I took it, holding it up in the torchlight. An amulet? 

“It marks you as a Blade. You helped us, despite the chance for you to run. Like I said, if the Emperor trusts you, it’s good enough for me.” He strode to the iron grate in the wall, unlocking it with a loud, metallic clank. It opened noisily. “Good luck.”

I grinned, and we shook hands. The other Blades looked at me curiously. 

“Thanks.”

 

I kicked the iron grate in front of me. The man had given me a key, but the hinges were rusted and stiff from age. I had just made it through the Imperial City sewers, thankfully unscathed. The worst which lived in the sewers were goblins, but there were quite a few which made them dangerous. I just snuck past. 

But now, I was separated by freedom by a stubborn grate. I growled. 

“Come on you stupid gate! Open!” I yelled, giving it one last kick. The door finally flew open with a massive clanging noise. I bared my teeth at the grate, but I quickly made my way into the open. The amount of noise I had made would draw some rather unwanted attention, and I don’t think I was strong enough to battle anything larger than maybe a couple of bandits. Not to mention that my weapons and armour were not in the best of conditions. I sighed, running a gloved hand over my horns on my head. Okay. I needed find a map and get moving. 

I heard a growl from behind me, and an arrow flew past my head as I whipped it to the side. A bandit stood there, an iron bow in hand. 

“Make one move, Argonian, and I put an arrow through your ugly head.” The bandit snarled. I narrowed my eyes. Well, this was a good day!

Gathering a fireball in my hand, I flicked it quickly at the bandit. He fired of an arrow, but since he was on fire, he didn’t aim very well, only grazing my shoulder. I sprang forwards, ready to kill him, but I was too late as an arrow entered his throat, killing him. He fell to the ground, still burning. 

My bow was in my hand within a second, and an arrow notched. Another Argonian stood there, an iron bow in her hand, aimed at my heart. 

Was she friend or foe…?

 

I watched the Argonian in my peripheral with little interest; instead focusing my attention on the figure behind her, letting the arrow fly toward the approaching bandit. Even if it missed, it would alert her to his presence. She would take care of it. I wasn’t the best or the most accurate at archery but it would have to do for now if I didn’t want to draw too much attention to other abilities. The Blades had always been on my tail. It was tiresome and I never really settled in one place because of it. I had many hidden places that I stayed at throughout Tamriel. Those were the closest homes I had. I was a wanderer.

I shook my head and continued to sift through the belongings that the bandits carried. I took what could be used or sold, leaving what was left. The bandits had taken something from me, a necklace made by a friend. I smiled and clasped it around my neck, happy to have it back. 

“There you are.” I said, looking fondly at the dragon shaped metal, embellished with four large scales to cover its body and two eyes that burned with a blue and red flame.

I turned to find the other bandit had been taken care of, and the Argonian stomping toward me, looking annoyed but curious. I smirked and turned up my hood, slipping away into the comfort of the shadows. I caught her scent a small distance behind me and huffed. What was she doing? I looked back to her barely visible figure in the darkness. 

“I know you’re there and if you were smart you wouldn’t follow a stranger into the wilderness…. Especially me.” I called as I continued forward, making twists and turns through the thick cluster of trees, rocks and bushes. She was really starting to frustrate me and I felt the power of the necklace burn through me, helping to restrain the curse.

I looked back to the Argonian with a pained glare and continued to move, listening out for any sudden movement. I was unsure of where I was going but I needed to lose her. She couldn’t become further involved than she already was. I tried to hurry as I felt my energy begin to drain and the world blur at the edges. Either she was getting faster or I was slowing down. I began to break into a crooked sprint, wondering whether it was smart or not to ignore their orders to rest when I could after each episode when the necklace wasn’t being worn.

I finally gave up and collapsed to the ground in a panting heap, letting unconsciousness take a hold of me.

“Damn it! I’m gonna get an earful from them later… ”

 

I grunted in annoyance as I saw the other Argonian fall unconscious. Great. Making my way over to her, I cast a night-eye spell on myself so that I could see properly. It wouldn’t last long – the effects only lasted for about 20 minutes – but that should be enough. From what I could see, there was a road not too far from where we currently were, and beyond that, I could see the moon rising over the water that surrounded the Imperial City. I had killed the bandits which were left before quickly looting them before taking after the other Argonian. She hadn’t been hard to track, even though she wore the night as well as I. Her scent had stood out clearly against the other earthy, night smells. 

But anyway, I crouched down, next to the unconscious girl. Hmm? 

Something was glowing strongly against her neck, and when I lifted her collar up, I saw a dragon-shaped pendant resting against her skin. Odd. I could feel heat emanating from it, and I had a feeling that it was enchanted with powerful magic. 

I couldn’t do much for her, although I held my healing spell over her face and chest for about 10 minutes. She didn’t seem to react in any way, so I figured the reason she was unconscious wasn’t something physical, like exhaustion. I sighed. I would just have to hope that she would wake up soon. She was well armoured, with a sword and bow attached to her. A warrior?

I sighed again, shaking my head. This was no time to be thinking. I needed to determine where we were so that I could get to Weynon Priory, to deliver the Amulet of Kings to the man named Jauffre. Also, I had a feeling that some night animals were coming out, like Spriggans and bears. That would NOT be a good thing. Plonking my bottom down, I fished the map out of my bag, smoothing it down on the ground in front of me. Okay… now where are we…

Hmm… I knew that I had come from the Imperial City, which was here… towards the top right of the City. It would be safe to assume that the ruins I had passed were an ancient Ayelid ruin, and that we were now pretty much on the road which circled the Imperial City. So, the closest main city, from my estimation, would be Cheydinhal. And even that was far away! But, it was probably the best bet to find out information on where I would need to go. It wouldn’t surprise me if we ran into an inn or two along the way.

Well, if I planned to go to Cheydinhal, it would probably take a couple of days to walk there, even if we followed the main roads. It’d probably be faster if we went off-road, but that was usually a lot more dangerous. And, in my condition, was not a good idea. But what about this other girl? She hadn’t wanted me to follow her. I sighed. I needed to put this out of my head for now, and focus on my main task- getting to Jauffre. That was my main goal for now. 

The moons still rose, coming slowly over the Valus Mountains, basking the Heartlands in an ethereal light and illuminating the Imperial City in a dim light.   
I smiled at the sight. It was truly beautiful.


	4. Chapter 4

“Get a cherry bomb ready!” I yelled, at my partner, while the black imp advanced on our small party. I backed up, growling. This just had to happen now! Out of ink! 

Oh why didn’t I get that golden ink pot when I had the chance?! 

The black imp cackled, 3 of his explosive skulls still floating around his head. He was backing me up to the barrier of our fight, where it would be harder to avoid his attacks. My ink – used for fighting, mainly – regenerated over time, but rather slowly. Until it came back, I couldn’t open my menu screen, couldn’t use my weapons, couldn’t seriously attack. I was just a white wolf. 

Come on!

“MOVE, WANDERER!” My partner yelled. I threw myself to the side as a cherry bomb sailed past my head. Swinging around, I saw the imp’s confused face just before the explosive detonated in its face.

There we go. The barrier around the battle disintegrated, and I slumped to the ground with a shaky sigh. Normally black imps didn’t faze me, but I’d used most of my ink pots up in a previous fight when the asshole ambushed us. 

My friend laughed, walking slowly up to me. “You alright, Wanderer? I don’t want you getting cold feet on my now. We’ve still got a way to go until level 64!” She gave me a cheeky look, poking me with her nose. I grunted, rolling my eyes while I got to my feet.

“You wish, Inquisitor!” 

My friend laughed again, flicking me with her tail. I shook my head, chuckling. She sniffed the air carefully while I waited for my ink pots to regenerate. Ah! There we were!

“I reckon there’s a demon gate nearby. Should we go there next?” Inquisitor looked at me curiously, the red markings glowing slightly against her dark fur. We were both playing as wolves at the moment, with my friend sporting black fur, red markings and her dark brush powers. She was sleeker than me, with much shorter fur. I had the normal white fur and normal brush powers that most people played with, but that didn’t bother me. I nodded at her.

“That should give us enough EXP to level up, yeah. Let’s go now.”

“Sounds good.”

 

Letting out a howl, Inquisitor – also known as Madeline Pearce – set off towards the cave system in the North. Demon gates spawned regularly, giving players a chance to level up. Pearce and I played regularly in our team. It meant less EXP, but it was much safer than traveling alone. Beside, we were friends offline, and we liked playing together. But anyway, I howled, following my friend who had raced off, following a nearby path.

I should probably explain. My name is Chelsea Lazar. I’m a gamer. Pearce and I were playing Okami, an old favourite of ours from the 6th generation of consoles. But not on the Wii. A couple of years ago – it started with the Oculus Rift, a device which mimicked human sight to give the illusion that we were actually in the game – a gaming company released something monumental in the industry, taking VR to a whole new level. A gaming console which allowed the player to be in the game. As you could expect, it was unbelievably popular. As the case with a new generation of consoles, there were a few… bugs, with both the games and the hardware. Radiation poisoning was quite common, strange enough, because someone buggered something up. The games were glitchy, but the community found some humour in them, as they always have. Nothing too major. 

But a few mishaps and patches later, we were in the 9th generation of consoles, or more commonly known – 2nd generation of the ‘Mad Hatters,’ as the headset went on the players’ heads. 

At the moment? I was using a 3rd generation Mad Hatter. The gen 2’s was still in the process of being phased out, both in compatible games and the actual console. I didn’t really mind – I still had my old gen 2 and most of my old games. 

Ah, games. The company that had released the original console also started remaking old video games from roughly the 4th gen to the 8th gen. Or, in years, from the 1990’s to roughly 2018 – 2019. Some classics never changed, from games such as GTA to Skyrim, Pokemon to Halo – all recreated and bringing up a whole new generation. Those weren’t the only games created, of course. Smaller indie games were also created, from Undertale to Amnesia to FNAF. You named it; it was on the Mad Hatters. I’d played a fair amount, like some of my favourites, Okami and Fallout 3, New Vegas and 4, among other things. Gaming was my passion.

 

I let out a joyful howl as we raced along the dirt path, lazily following the river upstream. It had taken a fair amount to get used to running and walking on all fours, along with the enhanced senses and the Celestial Brush, but I was quite an accomplished player, if I would say so myself. So were most of my friends, who I commonly played with.

It wasn’t hard to see why this gaming was addictive. It was just so real! The wind rushing though my fur, the dirt beneath my paws, the scents, what you could see, do… just everything. 

Letting out a playful howl, I sprinted ahead of Pearce, who let out an annoyed whine. Laughing, I picked up my pace to avoid being overtaken when – 

Something went wrong.

I felt my paws stagger as I tried to slow down. Stopping so fast wasn’t the brightest idea, tripping and rolling a fair few metres along the ground. Cursing in pain, I was on my feet in an instant. Blood was free flowing, turning the fur on my shoulder bright red.

Everything was bathed in a ghastly red light, as if Pearce had decided to use her Celestial Brush to negate the sun’s effect. I glanced at her. She shook her head. 

It wasn’t a player then. Looking around, I noticed the entire field we were in was in the red light, rather than a certain radius. This… this felt different. Wrong.

I turned to my friend; she looked alarmed – this had never happened before, this feeling. We would’ve remembered, or at least heard about it. 

“Behind you!” Pearce yelled, flinging a cherry bomb at an imp which had suddenly spawned behind me. I lunged forwards without thinking, missing the blast. Suddenly, we were surrounded by imps and monsters of all kinds.

What the hell was happening? We hadn’t initiated a battle, so why were there enemies here?!

A couple of imps – red – lunged forwards, gibbering in excitement. I jumped to the side, missing them and blasting them with my rosary beads in return. They died with a wail.

We were surrounded on all sides. I backed up against Pearce. “What’s happening?!” Snarling, I was broken off by some eager green imps who I slashed at with my Celestial Brush. They backed off. The reply was understandable – I didn’t know myself.

“I don’t know!” 

I glanced around desperately. The imps were closing in. We could drive some of them off, but nothing lasted forever. “What can we d-“ 

With a cry of pain, I collapsed to the ground, the sudden pain in my skull driving me to the dirt. It felt like my head was going to explode! I tried to look up, to get ready to fight again, but the pain… it was too extreme. I could vaguely see Pearce in the same state as me, on the ground, trying to get up.

Next came the strangest feeling. Well, it would’ve been strange if I wasn’t in extreme pain. Howling, it felt like my entire being was getting ripped apart by some unseen hand. 

Then, as if someone had flicked a switch in my head, I was out.


	5. Dress shopping

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So, this is just a short thing about my two Saint's Row 4 characters and the character my friend made.

“No. Absolutely not.”

“Come on, Shelby! It’s just one clothing store. You can choose a new outfit, help us choose ours… what’s the problem?” 

The iridescent red-head scowled at her partner, crossing her arms over her chest. How the hell had she gotten stuck with such a ridiculous and flamboyant man?  
Currently, the trio was standing outside of the closest clothing store, which just happened to be a Planet Zin store, much to the chagrin of the redhead. She didn’t mind some of the clothes, and they were the most ridiculous clothing stores in the virtual Steelport, but every time she was forced to accompany the genderfluid and their alien friend shopping, the assassin was forced to dress up in something absolutely terrifying. Quite often, it was some skimpy outfit. Other times, it was a mascot uniform. The most stupid thing she’d ever been forced to wear was a goddamn bath towel. 

The woman glared at her partner. She had no clue where the hell Em had disappeared off to – probably trying clothes on already – but she refused to be dragged into this again. The third member to their small party was a shapeshifting alien, who still couldn’t decide on a human name to be called by. So, as a compromise, the woman called him – him, it, she wasn’t entirely sure, but he spoke in a cockney accent for some bloody reason – Emerald, or Em for short, since his skin was a metallic green, reminiscent of the green, semi-precious gem. He didn’t seem to mind, regardless. The alien mainly liked trying on human clothes for the hell of it, not caring if they were meant for women or men. The woman didn’t really care. People could do what they wanted, and she’d been friends with the alien for nearly a year now, and she'd known the purple haired man she called her partner for nearly six years now. 

Neither of them went by proper names, considering that releasing their true names to hardened criminals could be extremely dangerous, but the woman usually called her partner Ebony or Violet, considering that they almost always dyed their hair an iridescent purple, similar to her own iridescent red. He didn’t really care. Well, she said ‘he,’ but Ebony was also aggressively outspoken about his sexuality and gender. He’d been born a man, but that didn’t stop them from dressing and acting however they’d wanted. They really just swung more towards a masculine gender most of the time, but they also tended to have a vague feminine feel about them, coming from his luxurious, shoulder length hair that he usually kept in a headband or a topknot. He also had a habit of assaulting anyone who displayed any homophobic or phobia towards their gender, but the woman could get away with it, since they usually took the piss out of each other, anyway. 

Most people mainly just called her ‘Boss’ or ‘Boots’ – due to the ridiculously high, bright aqua boots that she loved sprinting around the city in, and which she affectionately referred to as her ‘hooker heels,’ even though she’d never been in the profession – but absolutely no-one called her ‘Shelby,’ even though it was her real name. Ebony only got away with it for the same reason that she got away with calling him by not-proper pronouns; they’d been friends, somehow, and partners, for a good while. 

She cuffed the man over the ear as a retort for calling her ‘Shelby,’ giving him a rather flat look. “You know I hate it when you call me that, Eb.”

Her partner grinned, flicking the purple saint de fleur earing that dangled from her right ear and which matched the same earing dangling from his left ear. “Yes, but it also means that you give in to what I want more easily. So, no arguments. You,” He poked the woman on her nose, “are coming dress shopping with me, Boots.”


	6. Chapter 6

It was safe to say, Ratchet was not fond of humans. He found them easily breakable, fairly limited in their intellectual capabilities and highly annoying. So when Arcee, Bulkhead and Bumblebee were given the responsibility of watching over the three humans that they in avertedly dragged into their intergalactic war, the autobot medic was just thankful that he didn’t have to watch over an annoying, human child. 

In some cases, they did have their uses, such as when Raf fixed some of his computer troubles. But in every other case, they were nowhere near sturdy enough to be around Decepticons and the Autobots fighting, and at worst, they distracted their respective guardians and put them in danger. Ratchet found Miko the worst when thinking about missions. The girl had an insufferable habit of entering the ground bridge without telling anyone; thankfully, she did it often enough that her human friends could try to stop her, but even then, that never seemed to stop the humans from inviting themselves on missions. 

So when Optimus brought a tall, red-headed female back from one of the missions, and introduced her to him, the Autobot medic could only stare at his friend in shock. The girl smiled, straining her neck to look up at the much larger cybertronian, when Ratchet jerked his head back up to glare at Optimus. “No.”

“Ratchet, you need to learn about Earth culture at some point or another.” Optimus was gently chastising his friend, who just scowled at his leader in response. Motioning to the human, the red and blue Autobot smiled at the tiny human girl. “I believe that you might actually get along with Catherine. She was very excited to meet another medic.”

As much as he hated to admit it, that did pipe his interest. “A human medic? But you’re barely older than Jack!”

The red-head frowned. “I’m turning 19 next July. I’m not that young. Otherwise, I do know my stuff. I’ve been performing emergency first aid for nearly five years.”

Ratchet snorted. “According to the internet, you are still a child until you turn 21 in this country.” The medic paused, crossing his metallic arms. “And I have been performing medicine for millennia.” 

“I’m not from America, Doc. I’m from West Australia.” The human girl crossed her arms over her chest, while glaring at the massive robot. “You know, halfway across the world? I’m here for my extra credit at Uni.” 

The two medics proceeded to glare at one another until Optimus stepped in with a sigh. He knew his friend wasn’t entirely fond of humans, and barely tolerated Raf, Jack and Miko, but he was concerned for the red-head’s safety. She’d witnessed a scuffle between him, Arcee, Bulkhead and Starscream, and had thankfully remained hidden for the majority of the fight. She had reacted fairly well, if the Autobot was honest; appearing more curious than anything else. 

Unfortunately for them, Starscream had noticed her, just before running. And there was no telling what he would do with that information, which was troubling. So, that was why the teenage medic was currently here, arguing with the robotic medic.

“Ratchet, while I appreciate your opinion, there will be no arguing about this. I cannot take on Catherine as a guardian as it would place her in much greater danger than if you were to become her guardian. Is that understood?” 

The autobot medic had grumbled but relented, albeit with a small amount of arguing and whining. And, that was how Ratchet acquired his own human. The girl had met the other humans that afternoon, and apparently got on surprisingly well with all three of the children. Miko was especially fond of her, as the human medic had a habit of divulging into humorous stories of people that she had treated. For a human, she had a surprisingly good memory for remembering her patients. When commented on, the girl had simply laughed, waving her apparent skill off.

“My dad does it too, but that’s mainly with teeth. Still sort of the same thing, I guess.” The girl had grinned, sitting on one of the deactivated consoles while Ratchet fiddled with the complex looking computer. 

“Teeth? There’s a human job for dealing with that?” As much as he hated to admit it, he was curious about human medicine, and while the girl was quite young, she hadn’t been bluffing when she had stated that she knew her stuff. Through idle conversation, Ratchet had found that the human medic was fairly experienced with basic, human first aid, but still knew a fair amount about other areas. The extra knowledge apparently stemmed from a love of medicine and a fascination with the human body.

She also, apparently, and for some random reason, remembered a vast range of corny, human-related pick-up lines, that was only apparently humorous if you understood basic human medicine. The girl had an infuriating habit of announcing her presence to Ratchet with a corny joke, that more often than not resulted in the Autobot medic staring blankly at the human medic while she laughed at her own joke. She apparently felt the need to do such things, even though Ratchet had explained in precise detail that he did not understand what she was talking about. Apparently, that gave her all the more reason to continue her barrage of medical jokes, as it would allow the Autobot to greater understand the human physiology and humour behind the jokes. 

“Are you a pulmonary embolism? 'Cause I can't breathe when I'm around you.” Her cheerful voice announced the medic’s presence to the robotic medic, who held back a sigh.

“Catherine, what did I tell you about the human pick-up lines? I can’t understand why they’re funny to you. Can you please stop?”

The human medic laughed, walking up around the machine Ratchet was working on to climb up on top of another computer so she could be somewhere near his eye line. “Pulmonary usually refers to the lungs, and an embolism is usually a blood clot in an artery. So, a pulmonary embolism is a blood clot in the lungs, where a common symptom is shortness of breath.”

“But why would you say that in a pick-up line? It makes no sense.”

The red-head chuckled. “Quite often, when people have a crush on someone else, they get really nervous, which can result in shortness of breath.”

“…A crush?”  
“Oh, hmm… when you have romantic feelings towards someone else.”

The robot medic just sighed, turning his attention back to the machine he was working on. “You humans are strange.”

The human medic just laughed, nodding in agreement. “Don’t worry. I know that well enough.”


	7. saint's row

“You blokes ready?”

“Of course, mate! Bring on the Zin!”

The redhead woman laughed as her purple-haired partner gave her a thumbs up while their shapeshifting friend grinned. The trio were going on one of their many ‘bonding trips’ into the virtual city of Steelport, and which mainly consisted of killing as many Zin as possible as quick as possible. It was something of a competition between Ebony and Em, while Boots mainly just tagged along to pick fights with the aliens and to keep score between the two. 

For some reason, the two guys had some odd bromance going on between them, much to the redhead’s amusement. She supposed that was due to the general strangeness of Ebony’s usual attitude and fashion, and Em’s lack of understanding of normal human culture. It usually led to a number of strange conversations, usually centring around the use of weapons and everyday items. Apparently high heels were used as a weapon back on his own planet, to the confusion of the humans, and the excitement of the cockney shapeshifter. 

At the moment, the three were perched on a fairly tall building, just above a bustling flashpoint. They were all ridiculously armed – both Zin and the three above them – with the trio using their favourite weapons, which they had discovered fairly quickly after being locked in the simulation. For Boots, it was her decked out dubstep gun, which she had upgraded to have explosive wubs. Ebony was using her energy sword – glowing purple, of course – and Em was using his favourite weapon – the massive, long dildo bat that he loved beating people to death with. 

Of course, he also had his favourite rocket launcher, due to his love of huge explosions, but there was something much more cathartic about beating someone over the head with a massive, floppy, bright pink dildo. Boots and Ebony shared those sentiments as well, but the pair would much rather use something like the woman’s energy sword. Something just felt really cool about slicing someone with a glowing sword and watching them disintegrate into sparkly pixels. 

Of course, the main reason for the three picking a fight with the flashpoint was the possibility of spawning a Warden to fight with. After a fair few months in the simulation – with Boots becoming massively overpowered in the process, maxing out her favoured stomp ability – the woman and two blokes found that fighting the Wardens was the only thing that might pose an actual challenge. 

Boots turned to grin at her iridescent-haired partner, who raised a dyed eyebrow at her expression. “What do you have planned, Boss?”

The woman laughed, nodding down to the aliens. “Wanna make a bet?”

Almost instantly, a massive, wide smile spread across the man’s face. The pair had a habit of making insane bets – which she almost always won – which absolutely confused their green skinned friend. He didn’t understand their obsession with making their bets, and preferred to stay out of it. He’d been roped into one of Boots’ bets, and, after losing, been made to strip naked while dancing in front of the Zin. Personally, he didn’t understand why that was so bad, but after Matt Miller’s horrified shriek came through the audio system, he had been swiftly banned from participating. 

“What do I get when I win?” Boots flashed a sly smile at her partner, who flicked her earing in response, thinking.

“I dunno. What would you want?”

The woman paused, deliberating. A joking, knowing grin caused her face to light up with a seemingly evil joy. Shit. This was not going to end well for the man. 

She nodded her head to Em, who had been waiting fairly patiently. He had learnt it was better to wait for the two to finish their business before jumping in to fight, and was leaning back against the building’s ledge, spinning his dildo-bat on his finger.

“Get Em’s face tattooed on your ass.” The woman burst out laughing, as if that was the funniest thing she had thought of in a long time. Eb inwardly groaned, but cracked a smile, sticking his hand out to shake. 

“Deal. But when I win, you’ve got to get the most ridiculous tattoo in Rusty’s Needle tattooed on your face.”

“Deal.” The two shook hands, leading Em to lift his head.

“I’m looking forward to having my face tattooed on your ass, mate.” He cracked a grin before cracking one of the joints in his neck. “Now, can we please get fucking moving?”

Below them, the Zin meandered aimlessly about, minding their own business, when Em gave the signal to jump into the fray. With a whoop and a shout, Ebony launched himself over the edge of the building, hurling a powerful fireball at the hostile aliens. Most of the bunch went flying back, screaming as they burned, which allowed Boots to super sprint towards the thrashing hostiles. With a few punches and kicks to the head and testicles, she’d killed nearly six aliens, before she proceeded to super stomp the rest into oblivion.

She turned to see Ebony scowling at her, knowing that she’d obviously killed the most aliens and won the bet. The woman cackled, rolling her right shoulder. That had to be a new record for thrashing Eb’s butt. Talking about butts…

Boots flashed a triumphant and slightly cocky grin at her partner, who just gave her the finger. At that moment, acid rain began to fall from the sky, indicating the arrival of a Warden. Jumping back to stand alongside her friends, she grinned at the massive alien that dropped from the sky with an almighty snarl and a roar.

Em started the fight by ditching a massive, armoured police truck at the creature, which slammed into the Warden, knocking it off balance. It recovered quickly, instantly shifting into the position that would allow it to use its most powerful move – a massive blast of red energy that could be a pain in the ass to recover from. 

“Oh no you don’t!” Boots yelled as she slammed her right foot into the ground, sending a massive shockwave shuddering through the earth. That knocked the Warden over, to the woman’s savage glee, which allowed Eb to pelt the thing with a number of super-hot fireballs. Howling in rage, the Warden attempted to retreat, only to be kicked in the face by Boots, sending the creature stumbling back, disoriented. 

The woman jumped backwards, rolling back onto her feet, just as a massive surge of electricity – generated by Em’s telekinesis – hurtled past her head, slamming into the Warden. That seemed to be the final straw for the alien, who stumbled backwards, apparently defeated. Taking that as the cue to sprint towards the Warden, Em slammed into the thing, being seemingly absorbed by the glowing, red and black creature. After a few seconds, the Warden disintegrated, leaving a triumphant Em in its place. 

Flashing a toothy grin at the others, the shapeshifter went to pick up the dildo-bat that he had dropped before assimilating the Warden. The trio had a system that meant that all three of them could have a chance at killing the hostile aliens, and rotated killers regularly. It would be Eb’s turn next.

The purple-haired man grinned at his green skinned friend, slapping him on the back as a way of saying ‘good job.’

“Hey… Ebony…” Boots sidled up next to Eb, giving him the most infuriating grin she could muster. His grin sank from congratulatory to murderous within the space of a second as his two friends locked eyes. Em supressed a laughed, but proceeded to loop his arm around Ebony’s, beginning to tug him away from the flashpoint, in the direction of the closest Rusty’s Needle.

“Fuck me.”


	8. Chapter 8

“You playas’ ready for this?” King crossed his arms over his finely pressed jacket as he stared at the three people before him. They were finally ready. Ready to hunt down Tanya, who had made his life absolute hell, until the Boss had come along to ask him to join the Saints. 

Talking about the boss, the woman snorted before giving the man a lopsided grin. She knew how much this meant to him, hunting down and killing Tanya… again. “You know me, Ben. I’m ready for anything. Bring it on.”

The other two men standing next to her nodded, perhaps a tad too enthusiastically. Eb was just tagging along to help Boots, and – the woman wasn’t entirely sure – she thought that Em was tagging along to help Matt try out a new program.

After freeing King from his personal hell – being killed over and over again by his former street gang – the man had waited patiently, while writing his new book, for an opportunity to hunt Tanya down.

And now, it seemed, they had been presented with that opportunity. Kinzie had alerted the group to the appearance of some form of computer virus, apparently turning normal, ordinary civilian AI into sex workers, of all things. That did make sense, considering their target’s personality and past history with the Vice Kings, but it was still extremely strange, at least to Boots. The others didn’t seem to care. But apparently this was quite bad, according to Kinzie and Matt, as the modified AI were infecting other programs and could take over parts of the simulation. 

So, that was how Boots found herself with Ebony and Em, running through the streets of the virtual Steelport, looking for this rogue, virus-carrying AI. Matt had tracked the first one to the district of Salander, and had allowed Em to be able to absorb the AI – and therefore virus – into his programming, therefore killing it. Em, for some reason, seemed perfectly happy to help Matt out, even though they weren’t entirely sure what would happen after absorbing the virus.

But hey. They were up for trying something new, right?

It didn’t take the trio very long to locate the first carrier, surrounded by a number of Vice King henchmen. With a grin, and the assistance of her gravity stomp, Boots forced the men to hover nearly a metre in the air, screaming in rage, while Eb picked them off, one by one, with his pistol. They slumped to the ground once the gravity lift had worn off, but that didn’t bother the three.

“So, Matt, how the ‘ell do I do this, then?” Em asked the empty air as the stripper attempted to hit the shapeshifter with her high heel. He just shoved her to the ground, waiting for the reply. 

It only took a moment: “Well, go up to her, and I can prompt you from there.”

The alien shrugged, before he picked up the thrashing woman by the throat. Quite suddenly, tendrils of light and pixels began wrapping around his forearms, being seemingly absorbed by the man. A moment later, there was a much larger flash of light – Boots blocked her eyes, even though she was wearing her prized aviators – revealing the restored civilian AI and…

Boots just pulled a face – probably confusion, or disgust – while Ebony just burst out laughing. “Mate, I think there’s been a few side effects!”

The light had died to reveal Em in a tube top – bright green, of course – while wearing the tightest fitting pair of leather pants the two of them had ever seen, revealing far more than all of them ever wanted to see (again). He also had a brown, worn leather cowboy hat perched on his bright red braids, along with a pair of extremely shaggy boots that looked like something out of 60’s bad horror flick. 

The three could hear Matt’s confused mumblings over the audio system, but none of them could really understand the technological jargon he was mumbling. Even so, another map marker popped up on Boots’ hub, in which King began to head towards in his helicopter, leaving the others to follow with their superpowers. 

“I… I don’t know what’s happened. There doesn’t seem to be any major changes to your code, Em, but I’ll run a few more diagnostics. The clothing change should wear off… I hope.”

Matt grumbled the last part, but otherwise, allowed the group to continue on with no interference. 

 

It didn’t take them too long before they found the second, and then third, virus carrier, in which Em absorbed both. To Eb’s amusement, and Boots’ extreme disbelief, Em didn’t seem to care about his change of wardrobe. Well, Boots’ wasn’t totally confused, since Em was a shapeshifting alien who wore a tank top and tight denim shorts on a good day.

With instructions from Matt, the group had found themselves at Tanya’s strip club, Technically Legal, in which they were supposed to find Tanya. King was off, parking the helicopter, which left Boots, Eb and Em to find the woman before she took off. 

Speaking of Em, where was he?

The redhead craned her neck, looking for the tell-tale signs of her alien friend. Eb, thankfully, was sticking quite close to her, meaning that they wouldn’t lose each other in the strip club. She nudged her friend in the ribs, about to ask if he could see their friend, before the purple-haired man nodded towards the stage. 

“What the fuck is he doing?” Boots’ eyebrows rose as she saw the skimpily dressed shapeshifter walk onto stage, a determined grin on his face. Rolling his neck and shoulders, Boots let her expression drop into one of “what the fuck is he doing?”

Besides her, Ebony just cackled, watching as their friend began to do what he believed was a ‘sexy human dance,’ but would much rather prompt screaming from the crowd, rather than encouragement. Oh god.

The vision of the alien twerking and thrusting on stage was one that Boots would rather forget, and in her opinion, lasting two minutes too long. Eb seemed to be enjoying the supposed dance, but the boss was quick to drag the two up to the roof after King started yelling at the three of them.

And, afterwards, she agreed wholly with Matt’s pained groans as she sprinted along the rooftops to go kill Tanya. Wherever the fuck that dance had come from, she never wanted to see that again, and would much rather focus on hunting this bitch Tanya down.


	9. Chapter 9

“So, why are we doing this?” Em was lounging on one of the couches in the karaoke club that Pierce had forced everyone to come to. The crew was currently inside one of the many bars that frequented the virtual Steelport, after Pierce had forced everyone – including Boots, Em, Matt and Shaundi – to come inside the simulation for a bit of winding down time that didn’t involve hunting down Zinyak’s troops. Boots was actually surprised that Shaundi had come along with the rest of the crew, considering how committed she was to shutting the simulation down and how she didn’t usually set time aside for relaxing. Apparently Matt and Em also had a habit for heading into the simulation for a bit of… partying, so to speak, at some of the local nightclubs in the area. Boots had stumbled onto footage of the two of them having a beer but she had quickly shut the camera watching the two down. She didn’t want to intrude on whatever bromance the two were having.

So, that was how she found herself with her best mates, laughing and joining in on horribly off-key singing. The karaoke bar was a rather small establishment, with an old, wooden bar running across the far side of the room where a young, slight woman in a dirty apron was wiping down the bar with a cloth. A number of faded, purple leather couches circled the centrepiece of the entire bar; a fairly large, 30-inch television with a number of large speakers mounted on the wall next to the television. Even though Boots knew that she was in the simulation, she was utterly amazed at how realistic the world was. 

Every touch, every smell, every sight; it still blew her mind every time she strapped herself into the machine on the ship. Of course, some things were still… outside the realm of reality, but it was still freaking awesome sprinting around the city she knew as her second home, jumping entire buildings in a single bound and power stomping enemies into oblivion. She really couldn’t place a time in recent history where she had recalled having so much fun. 

Everyone at the moment was crowded into the faded leather, and Boots was crammed up against Eb, who was leaning haphazardly over the edge of the furthest couch. Eb was watching curiously at Pierce, who was singing the most off key song to kick off the night, and who was dancing in the middle of the circle of couches. Matt was crushed up against Eb’s side, since Kinzie had insisted on taking up nearly half of the entire couch for herself, and Ben King and Shaundi were sharing the last couch, quietly watching the proceedings. Asha was perched at the bar, ordering everyone’s drinks. Boots wouldn’t be surprised if Ben busted out some opera by the end of the night, but she had a feeling that everyone would have to get a lot more boozed up before anyone would allow that to happen. 

Pierce’s singing voice – or music choice, really - really hadn’t improved in the years leaving Stilwater, but Boots had a feeling that the man was trying to get everyone into singing. She wasn’t sure how well that would end, considering that one of their crew was a shapeshifting alien, and the rest had a list of crimes that would roll out the door if written down. But, Eb did like to drink, and he wasn’t afraid to make a show of himself if given the chance. It seemed that he wanted to sing next, given the way the purple haired man jumped up with excitement after Pierce finished his song. 

Plugging his choice in, Eb began to warble out some old rock song from one of the radios, with a surprisingly good voice. Well, considering how much time the two of them had spent, speeding around Steelport in the fastest cars they could steal, belting out the lyrics to their favourite songs… she supposed that both of them had time to practice their singing voices, to the amusement of almost everyone involved. Em seemed fairly entertained, considering that they didn’t have anything like that back on his own planet, and that he hadn’t really seen everyone really cut loose before. 

A few more songs were sung and a few more beers drunk before Boots was finally dragged up by the elbow to the floor by Ebony, who was insisting that she join in at least once before they all left to go back to the ship for a good night’s rest. Of course, they couldn’t get drunk once they left the simulation, but they could if they remained in the simulation, but that was a story for another time.

They also ended up dragging Em up onto the small stage to sing a slightly tipsy rendition of “What is Love,” which both Boots and Eb considered their ‘jam.’ While Em wasn’t as used to singing, he absolutely baffled everyone when he pulled out a rather smooth baritone to accompany Ebony’s slightly confusing tenor and Boot’s much lower alto. 

It was ridiculous and off key and they were all in stitches by the end of the song, due to Boots having the most god-awful timing with some of the lyrics appearing on the television in the corner. And, while it would probably be a while before anything like this was forced on them again, Boots wasn’t entirely bothered. She’d had fun, gotten slightly drunk with her mates and had made a fool of herself with her friends. 

And that wasn’t the worst way to end the night, if she was honest.


End file.
